these days, signs the economy is recovering. >> more than doubled in sales. next year, we are planning to hire 150 people. >> reporter: that hiring trend reflects what is happening throughout the country with news that employers added $200,000 jobs for the last months. 40,000 in education and health care. 27,000 manufacturing jobs, 17,000 construction jobs. >> now, we are getting consistent jobs reports. it's positive. it's positive for the economy and people should feel generally better that conditions are improving. >> reporter: on closer look, the unemployment rate for adult men is 6.7%. for women, 6.2%. the numbers are higher for african-americans and teenagers. still, some worry washington's upcoming budget battles could threaten the recovery. >> the u.s. economy pays attention to what washington is doing but this is an unpredictable business. it makes it interesting, but hard to know, sort of, what washington does in the next week, month or year. what that means, how much the economy can recover and at what rate. >> reporter: there may be political unce